Bill Black on Obama
From Bill Black at New Economic Perspectives:
Sixty Minutes’ December 11, 2011 interview of President Obama included a claim by Obama that, unfortunately, did not lead the interviewer to ask the obvious, essential follow-up questions.
“I can tell you, just from 40,000 feet, that some of the most damaging behavior on Wall Street, in some cases, some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street, wasn’t illegal.”…
I have explained at length in my blogs and articles why:
Only fraudulent home lenders made liar’s loans
Liar’s loans were endemically fraudulent
Lenders and their agents put the lies in liar’s loans
Appraisal fraud was endemic and led by lenders and their agents
Liar’s loans could only be sold through fraudulent reps and warranties
CDOs “backed” by liar’s loans were inherently fraudulent
CDOs backed by liar’s loans could only be sold through fraudulent reps and warranties
Liar’s loans hyper-inflated the bubble
Liar’s loans became roughly one-third of mortgage originations by 2006Each of these frauds is a conventional fraud that could be prosecuted under existing laws. Hundreds of lenders and over a hundred thousand loan brokers were “accounting control frauds” specializing largely in making fraudulent liar’s loans. My prior work explains control fraud, why accounting is the “weapon on choice” for fraudulent financial firms, and why liar’s loans were superior “ammunition” for committing massive accounting fraud. These accounting control frauds caused greater direct financial losses than any other crime epidemic in history. They also drove the financial crisis that produced the Great Recession and cost millions of Americans their jobs.
